Pakistan, Aug. 1 -- A Sri Lankan court on Friday sentenced a former police chief and a former top Defense Ministry official to death after finding them guilty of criminal negligence that allowed Islamic State-inspired bomb attacks on Easter Sunday in 2019, which killed more than 260 people.

A death penalty in Sri Lanka typically means life in prison because the country has had a moratorium on executions since 1976. Current President Anura Kumara Dissanayake supports maintaining the moratorium.

Former Police Chief Pujith Jayasundara and former Defense Ministry Secretary Hemasiri Fernando were convicted and sentenced Friday by the three-member High Court bench. They have the right to appeal the ruling.

The near-simultaneous bombings in 2...